"You see a crowd and they're all quidams," explains Gabriel Dube-Dupuis, general stage manager for Cirque du Soleil's "Quidam," which comes to UTEP's Don Haskins Center for eight shows Wednesday through Jan. 27.

"As you stop and start to say hello and meet people, they are no longer quidams," he adds. "You've made a connection."
That's the point of "Quidam," which is rooted in both the mundane and imaginary worlds of a little girl named Zoé. Many of its circus acts hang from one of five aluminum steel arches, known as téléphériques (pronounced "tell-uh-fair-eek"), that loom over the stage.

Dube-Dupuis, who has been with Cirque for 15 years, describes "Quidam" as "one of the Cirque masterpieces." It debuted in 1996 and focuses on Zoé, whose parents neglect her. A quidam "opens the door of her imagination," said Mei Bouchard, one of the performers in the show.

"The big concern at the time (it was created) was how do we stay in touch with one another, as opposed to being strangers," Dube-Dupuis said in a telephone interview. "It takes you on a journey. I find that show is very poetic, very cinematic. Also, it has an edge to it. It's grounded in the reality of the day.

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Some may call it dark; I call it more profound."

Bouchard agrees. She's one of the five acrobats suspended by ropes in the Spanish Web, one of more than a dozen acts and characters featured in "Quidam."

"It's a very different Cirque show," the 21-year-old Orlando, Fla., native said from a tour stop in Colorado Springs. "It's a very human show. A lot of people can relate to it, with the live music and the costumes and the theme of it."

The Spanish Web team has seven members. Five perform a seven-minute routine suspended from the téléphériques. At one point, they slide down rapidly, stopping just shy of the stage.

"We're right off the ground," said Bouchard, who has been with "Quidam" for more than a year. "We spin on it and do all sorts of crazy stuff."

Making sure things don't get too crazy is Sheldon Abel's job. The tour's production stage manager describes himself "the grease that helps all the wheels."

It's a lot of wheels. He oversees the logistics of a company that numbers more than 100 people, including 52 performers from 22 countries. The show's stage, lights, sound, costumes, catering and other equipment travel in 16 trucks.

It takes 12 hours to build the stage, less than three hours to tear it down. Sixty to 80 local crew are hired.

As with the two other Cirque shows that played the Haskins — "Alegria" in 2010 and "Dralion" last year — Abel said the show's directors converted it from the big top to arenas by changing the staging, not the show.

One arch was split into five. The stage floor was rebuilt with rubber-coated aluminum and more than 200,000 perforations to allow lights and other visual effects to project from beneath it.

There is a traditional backstage and one atop the téléphériques, dubbed "The Garage," where up to 10 technicians and eight performers may be present at any given time. "There's a whole lot of stuff you never see going on up there, all show long," Abel said.

Each téléphériques is fitted with two cars that move performers and set pieces up and down on steel rope. "You can drop something in, bring it up, move up and down, they can move back and forth," Abel said. "We can pretty much pick a spot and drop something there."

Abel, who was in El Paso with "Alegria," said the UTEP arena poses unique challenges because of its small size and design limitations. The arches are 38 feet high in most arenas, but will be 28 feet here.

"It has no effect on the show," Abel said. "It makes it a more intimate experience when it's lower like that. It brings it closer."

The venue's small backstage requires creative solutions for a company of performers who practice and warmup before they go on stage — or hang over it. "Although we have an entire show going on, we have a huge amount of backstage training going on," Abel said. "It's a separate world behind the scenes, and we have to adjust all that."

Only one act, the trapeze-style Cloud Swing, uses a safety rope in a show Abel described as "mostly flying aerial acts."

Some practice in closed areas of the concourse. Others work out before performances.

"The only way to be truly great at what you do is to be continuously doing it and doing it," Abel said.

The company's certainly found a way to make things work at the Don. Cirque first stopped there with eight performances of "Alegria," which drew more than 30,000 people, Dec. 1-5, 2010. "Dralion," staged eight times Feb. 15-19, 2012, attracted more than 34,000.

"El Paso has been well known in the past for its large crowds," Dube-Dupuis said, "which are extremely welcoming — and loud."

Doug Pullen may be reached at dpullen@elpasotimes.com. Read Pullen My Blog at elpasotimes.com/blogs. Follow him on Twitter @dougpullen and on Facebook at facebook.com/dougpulleneptimes.

How much: $35, $55, $75 and $95; discounts for military, seniors 65 and older, students, children 12 and younger; and family four pack (two adults and two children). Tickets are sold at the UTEP Ticket Center and through Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and 800-745-3000.